По-моему все не так однозначно. Ниже выдержка на эту тему из недавней статейки Орсона Скотта Карда, полную версию можно увидеть здесь: http://hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2006-01-01.shtml

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The mother reminded me of a woman I ran into in the Greensboro airport the other day, in the long line approaching the security checkpoints. She had two very young daughters with her, and barely paid attention to them. So they would sit down wherever they wanted to, and while she moved ahead in the line, they would sigh and slowly, slo-o-o-owly get up and walk another ten steps and then camp again.

It's not as if the line was going to move any faster. But those little girls' heads were right at the level where a passing piece of luggage could easily give them a smack without the luggage-bearer ever having seen the child. Plus, one of the primary jobs of parents is to teach their children to behave in a socially responsible way -- including the obligation to move forward continuously in line and not park under other people's feet while Mom talks on a cellphone.

When the slowest of the children began moving forward by remaining seated and only sliding her bottom along the carpet, her legs moving like an inchworm, I said (in a cheerful, take-this-as-humor voice), "You know, if you stand up and walk, you'll stay closer to your mom."

In other words, I was giving a big broad hint to the mother to watch her children, please, for their own safety if nothing else.

The mother did hear me, as I intended. She immediately turned to the little girl and in that sticky-sweet voice that Southern women use when they want to be insulting while pretending that they're being nice, she said to the girl, "You can move along on your bottom if you want to."

The message to me was clear: You have no right to talk to my children.

Yeah, well, I thought my message had been just as clear: You're doing a lousy job as a mother.

So I coldly said, "I'm sorry I addressed your child."

"Oh, I don't mind," she lied sweetly. "I just want to make sure that she knows she doesn't have to obey you."

Well, first of all, I hadn't given the child any orders at all. And, more importantly, it was obvious that the little girl already knew she didn't have to obey me -- or anybody else.

Such parents think they're being so careful -- don't obey strange men, darling! -- when in fact they are lazy and inattentive, not caring that their children are growing up without any sense of being responsible to other people for their own behavior. If kids don't learn this from their parents, where will they learn it? From the schools, which have been stripped of any authority over the children they supposedly teach? ....